


You've Got the Face to Play the Role

by livingbetweenthetimes



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, BBC, Famous Louis, M/M, Non-Famous Harry, doctor who - Freeform, larry stylinson - Freeform, sugarscape, tumblr fandom at play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 07:00:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2219883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingbetweenthetimes/pseuds/livingbetweenthetimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is a writer at Sugarscape with a not so secret crush on BBC actor Louis Tomlinson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You've Got the Face to Play the Role

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amphisbene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amphisbene/gifts).



> For the lovely amphisbene. I apologize for my lack of Doctor Who knowledge, but I wanted to keep that element of the original prompt, so TADA. This is not nearly as long as it should be, but I hope you enjoy it none the less. 
> 
> Title taken from Fans by Kings of Leon.
> 
> Also, please ignore any and all typos that are bound to be.

_**DOCTOR WHO LET THIS HAPPEN?? LOUIS TOMLINSON SET TO APPEAR ON NEW SEASON- CAUSING US ALL MINOR HEART PALPITATIONS** _

_By: Harry Styles_

_The Northern hottie has just been confirmed to appear on the premiere of the new series of Doctor Who. Louis Tomlinson, known best for his smaller roles in various BBC productions and movies, took to twitter earlier this week to announce the news.The rumor mill had been buzzing after Louis was seen leaving the BBC offices a couple weeks ago. He was an absolute tease when he tweeted a simple “knock knock. Who’s there? Doctor…” which led his fans to tweet up a storm with their speculations... Though Tommo has only made smaller appearances on screen, his brash accent and cheeky charm have been enough to garner a small but powerful fan base. It’s still unclear as to what exactly his role will be on the show, but we here at Sugarscape don’t really mind as long as we get to ogle at his blinding smile and beautiful ass. Oops._

_In honor of the news, here’s a look at just a few of the times he made us want to melt into a puddle of mush from his absolute beauty:_

_1\. During his 5 episode guest appearance as Scott on East Enders last year_

 

_2\. On the red carpet for the London LGBT gala (brb swooning)_

 

_3\. An oldie but a goodie, Tommo in his hilarious role as Frankie in the growing cult favorite “As You Wish”_

 

_4\. Showing off his amazing footie skills in Niall Horan’s charity match earlier this year (guess he’s just a natural when it comes to playing with balls)._

 

 

_5\. Who let this in? Oh well. Pictured (ehh-maniped?) here with Sugarscape’s own, Harry Styles (definitely not the author of this article). Anyway, we ship it. #larry ??_

 

_Be sure to catch Tomlinson on the Aug 27 premiere on BBC._

 

\-------------------------------------

 

Harry read through the article one last time, making sure the proper pictures were with the proper captions and that no erroneous spellings littered the page. He hated grammatical errors and typos. They were just flat out humiliating. Yes, he would publicly embarrass himself by making it known he thirsted after one Mr Louis Tomlinson any day of the week, but a spelling mistake? No.

 

He signed off on the article by sending a quick email to his editor and closed his laptop. He had a 8 am civil law lecture and no amount of sleep would be enough to make him pay full attention to his droning professor.

 

He loved law. Really, he did. He just didn’t like the waking up at ass o’clock in the morning and making his way to campus part. He much prefered a late morning snooze and a leisurely day of writing, working out, and watching reruns of old television shows. Who wouldn’t really. But that was not in the books for a 21 year old law student/part time blogger.

 

When he wasn’t in class or reading up on historical law cases, he was getting nonstop assignments from his editor at Sugarscape, telling him he needed to watch a specific movie, or look into the drama behind a certain band so he would be able to write an article.

 

Not that he minded. He always jumped at the opportunity to look into the latest scandal between the stars. It was a break from reality. Even though he was writing about real people, there was always a sense of abstractness to it all. He wasn’t deluded enough to think he could one day marry Burberry model Zayn Malik, so he was completely content with writing about his rumoured past with Liam Payne despite his current engagement to Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards.

 

It was like a soap opera. A work of fan fiction. A life he would never be a part of (and that was completely fine by him). And so delving into that world felt like a nice step back from his reality of law papers and deadlines.

 

\-----------------------------

 

Harry’s phone was blowing up. All throughout his lecture, it was a constant string of vibrations. When his professor turned around to help another student across the room, he pulled it out of his pocket just to make sure it wasn’t an emergency. He feared maybe his mum or Gemma needed something urgently, but a quick peek at his screen told him that his concern was misplaced. Every single notification was from twitter.

And... what? He had a handful of followers, sure. But nothing that would warrant this kind of attention. He quickly thought of his last tweets. Had anything been controversial? Had he tweeted at a celeb? No. He didn’t think so. From what he could recall his last tweet had been yesterday and all he had done was simply state his love for vintage headscarves with bold prints. Just an obvious observation really.

He stuffed his phone back into his black skinnies as his professor cleared his throat and started back into the lecture.

 

\-------------------------------

As he was ushered out of the room with the rest of his classmates at the end of the period, he ran into several people, having to mumble sorrys as he continued to scroll through his notifications, trying to figure out what exactly had stemmed this explosion.

He kept seeing a common factor in the tweets from various people: Louis Tomlinson. The tweets ranged from the simple “ ** _Harry_Styles OMG Louis_Tomlinson follow me_** ” to “ _ **Harry_Styles Louis_Tomlinson fuck me in the ass until I’m a crying mess covered in your cum.**_ ” And well that was a bit extreme. Sure, he didn’t exactly disagree with the message, but it seemed a wee bit vulgar.

Finally he scrolled through to the very first notification and his heart stalled and he stopped in his track.

_**Louis_Tomlinson: Harry_Styles natural ball player, ay? Clever mate. Never heard that one before...** _

__

He dropped his phone. Half from pure disbelief and half due to how quickly his palms had begun to sweat. He bent down to retrieve it, still shaky. Okay pull yourself together. You are a grown man, he thought to himself as he straightened back with his phone in hand.

So then Louis had read his article. And okay. That was. Okay.

Sure, Sugarscape was a well known site, he knew that. He had even gotten a few favorites from some lesser known celebs before. But this was Louis Tomlinson. He wasn’t an A lister by any means, but he had a cult following (as made obvious by the twitter explosion currently happening on Harry’s account). And well, Harry was a fan. A big fan.

He looked at the screen again, just to make sure he had seen it correctly. He read it again. And again. And he reread it at least twelve times, inflection on a different word each time he uttered the sentence in his head. When he finally pulled his eyes from the screen to glance around the hallway, he noticed it had emptied as people had rushed off to their next classes.

He wandered over to a vacant bench and plopped down with a deep breath. There were several thoughts going through his head all at once:

1\. Louis Tomlinson had tweeted him

2\. Louis Tomlinson had just called him out on twitter.

3\. Louis Tomlinson had been offended by his joke. (He thinks?)

4\. Louis Fucking Tomlinson had tweeted him

Harry once again read the tweet and decided that Louis most definitely wasn’t pleased. Yes, he was known for his sharp sarcasm and brazen comments. But had Harry actually offended him? It seemed so.

He had always respected Louis with how he had been so upfront about being gay. Always faced any negativity with a “why don’t we talk about my work, and not who I shag” attitude. He was always going to LGBTQ events and speaking to teens. He was an amazing advocate for the community. And had Harry reduced all his work down to a stupid stereotypical joke?

Harry raised his left hand to his mouth and began to nibble on the back of his finger. A nervous habit. And he was most definitely nervous.

The last thing he ever wanted was to offend someone. Especially about being gay. He knew all too well the criticism faced when your sexuality wasn’t what people wanted it to be, when they couldn’t fit your identity into their own predetermined boxes of gay or straight.

He continued the attack on his finger as he thought about his response. He was most definitely going to respond. There was no question around it. He needed to apologize. Even if he was overreacting and Louis was just being witty, he couldn’t stand the thought that there was the possibility he had offended him.

He typed out several comments, quickly deleting each before he sent them. He stared at his best attempt:

_**Harry_Styles: Louis_Tomlinson hope you in no way took that immature joke as a blow to your sexuality. I apologize if so. That was never my intention. xx** _

He quickly hit the tweet button before he could overthink it any more. As soon as it was out there he dropped his phone onto the bench beside him. He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, running both of his hands through his hair, slightly massaging his scalp.

What even had been the last 5 minutes of his life. Is that what it had been, 5 minutes? It felt like hours.

\------------------------------

It wasn’t until he was walking through the front door of his flat that he had time to check his phone. Once again, he was punched in the gut when he saw one tweet in particular.

**_Louis_Tomlinson: Harry_Styles now you talk about “blowing” me?? Wow. You do talk some shit! Only kidding mate. Thanks for your kind words. #larry_ **

Holy fucking shit on a cracker. Had Louis Tomlinson just HASHTAGGED THEIR SELF PROCLAIMED SHIP NAME?  WAS HE EVEN ALIVE ANYMORE?

He took half a breath before rereading the tweet again (this was becoming a thing).

Before he had time to even consider his next move, he had 37 new notifications. He quickly went into his settings and adjusted them so that his phone wouldn't continue to buzz nonstop with constant twitter updates.

He considered his options. He could end their little twitter convo there or he could respond. The latter (and really only viable) choice then put the question back of what to tweet. What did you tweet the guy you’ve been halfway in love with every time his stupid face makes an appearance on screen. Oh god. What did you tweet the guy you’ve had several wanks thinking about.

_**Harry_Styles: Louis_Tomlinson Love all of your work both on and off screen. You do so much for the community.Can’t wait to see you on my tv screen again.** _

__

He pocketed his phone and attempted to carry on with his life, pretending his world hadn’t just exploded slightly.

\-----------------------------

_**“NO, DOCTOR, I’M NOT OKAY.”:  TOMLINSON REVEALED AS NEW COMPANION IN SERIES** _

_By: Harry Styles_

__

_We all waited with baited breath to see what roll Louis Tomlinson would play in the series premiere. We sat on the edges of our seats as it was revealed that el Tommo wouldn’t just be a one hit wonder with the show, as he is taking over the part as companion to the Doctor. We let out a tremendous roar of pleasure with the news and are pretty sure this went down in history as one of the greatest things to ever happen on BBC._

__

_On a serious note, however, it seems Tomlinson’s character will be one to watch. His character, Lucas, is a gay bartender in South London. While we witness his cheeky flirting almost immediately, his character goes way past that seen in overplayed stereotypes. His interactions with the Doctor are sincere and it in no way seems that he will fall into the funny gay sidekick role that has plagued television for so long._

__

_Its always nice when a gay/lesbian/bisexual character is fully explored instead of cast aside for the sake of a quick laugh. Lets hope that Tomlinson’s character proves to be more than just that, and it will go down on the ever growing list of Luigi’s achievements._

__

\-------------------------------

One would think that by the third time your all time favorite person on the planet tweeted you, you’d be calmer, but no.

_**Louis_Tomlinson: Always nice to see an appreciation for dynamic queer characters. Though I do miss your quirky comments about my ass ;)** _

\-------------------------------

It was 2pm on a Wednesday when he got the call.

“Hey, Harry, so how much do you love me?” His editor’s voice overly excited as it came through the receiver.

“uhmmm”

“I’ll tell you how much. You love me so much that you are going to want to drive over to my flat and give me a giant kiss right smack on the lips.”

“Erm, Can you just tell me what’s going on? I don’t-“

“I got you in. To interview him. You’re gonna be interviewing him”

“Who? What are you-“

“Tomlinson.”

Harry gulped.

“Tomlinson? As in Louis Tomlinson”

“That very one”

“What? How? When? Why?”

“Well it just so happens that we got the go ahead to send someone in to interview the newest cast member. We’ve been talking with the show’s PR and they just gave us the all clear. We get a ten minute slot.”

“But why me? I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m fucking delighted, but isn’t there someone else with more experience with interviews that should be doing this? I mean I don’t have the best public speaking skills and I tend to mumble and are you sure-“

“Harry. Are you aware how much attention your little flirty twitter exchanges with him have garnered? People are proper shipping you two. Like, its a thing.”

“I mean I knew some people had tweeted about it, but like I didn’t-”

His editor laughed into his ear, “Mate. Go onto tumblr. Check the Larry Stylinson tag. Anyway, having you do the interview will just get us that many more views. People will be waiting to see if you guys mount each other.”

“But we aren’t- like I have never even met the guy.”

“That doesn’t matter. People believe what they want to believe. Regardless, it will make for a good interview”

\------------------------------

As soon as he hung up the phone, Harry bounded into his room to retrieve his laptop. He opened up his tumblr page and quickly typed “Larry Stylinson” into the search bar. He held his breath as the hits loaded. Suddenly his screen was filled with not just one or two posts, but over a hundred. All of him. And Louis. He focused on the ones that had the most notes. Several were manips of them together (much better than the one he initially did), others were links to fan fics (what the fuck).

The one that really caught his attention though was a huge masterpost labeled PROOF. In it, was a compilation of his and Louis’ instagram pictures, tweets, and even a couple of shots from Louis getting papped out and about. Under each set was a detailed description of how the two pics or tweets supposedly related to each other.

The top image was a picture he had posted on instagram, three days ago, of his dinner. The photo was just of a meal he had had while out with Gemma, chicken wrapped in parma ham with a side of mash. But paired next to his insta post was a tweet Louis had made the same day that simply read “Hugo’s. Ace”  

The author of the post then went on to explain how Hugo’s was a restaurant in South London that Louis frequented. She had included a screen grab of an online version of their menu. Right between the rotisserie chicken with asparagus and the steak frites, was chicken and parma ham.

She then noted the times of the posts. Harry had posted his photo at exactly 8.03 and Louis had tweeted at 10.07. Given that Louis wouldn’t tweet his location until well after he had left, it probably meant he had waited until he was back home. So add in an hour and a half for dinner (9.33) and then the 30 min drive back to his flat, and you would come up with a time very close to 10.07.

It was so believable. Those times did correlate. It was almost as if.. but then it dawned on him that no, this wasn’t true. He hadn’t been there. He had been out in a completely different restaurant in a completely different part of town.

He scrolled down, there were at least fifteen different times when something he or Louis had done could be paired up with the other. (One even going as far as to say Louis had been seen out driving in the neighborhood that Harry lived in. And well, that was strange because how did they know where Harry lived).

If he was anyone but himself he would have had to agree that all of these instances together made for one very eyebrow raising coincidence. No wonder people were freaking out. They thought they were proper together. And to an outsider, it really really seemed that way. He and Louis were living parallel lives, just enough to scrape the surface without really ever crossing paths.

\-----------------------------

He got to the studio at half past noon. His interview was scheduled to start at 1.30, and he still had to meet with people to go over his questions.

After a brief chat with the show’s representative he headed back to the green room to grab a bottle of water and see if perhaps they had a banana or two.

And that’s how they met.

“What are you doing” spoken in the thick northern jolted him out of his reverie.  He spun around, banana sticking half out his mouth and was met with the sight of Louis’ piercing blue eyes.

“Hmpp” He said as he extended his hand to shake Louis’. He paused, finished chewing and tried again.

“Hello, I’m Harr-”

“Oh I know who you are.” Louis said, as he shook his hand  “Don’t think I’d be so quick to forget you, mate.”

And well, Harry wasn’t too sure if that was a good thing or not.

“Right, well I’m a huge fan and I am really happy that-” he started.

“You know people think we are dating right? Like proper dating?”

“Yeah, look I’m sorry about that, I never meant for anything to start with that whole like Larry thing.” He used exaggerated quotations around the word.

“Oh please, its all just a bit of fun, yeah?” Somewhere off in the distance a man shouted that  Louis was needed in hair and make up. (Harry would have to find said man and strangle him later) “Plus, a guy could do worse” he said as he threw him a wink and turned to leave in the direction of the dressing rooms.

\----------------------------

After the initial shock of meeting Louis had worn off, Harry was actually able to conduct a pretty decent interview. The segment would only air at 10 minutes, but he got a half hour worth of decent commentary that could be edited down.

Louis had of course given his normal charming, sarcastic answers, but when it came time to talk about the impact gay characters have on tv, he was nothing but sincere. They had a natural chemistry with banter and Harry found himself forgetting they were being formally recorded.

\-----------------------------

“Ya know, it would kinda be fun to give them something to talk about.” Louis said as they gathered up their belonging and headed back towards the back of the studio.

“Who?”

“All those people. All those ‘Larry’ shippers”

“Oh, yeah” He nodded and hummed noncommittally. Despite the fact they had now been in each other’s presence for quite some time, he was still fucking nervous. They were stood in a hallway, Louis needing to head one way, and Harry the other.

Louis looked at him expectantly, but didn’t speak. It was like he was waiting for Harry to respond the question that he hadn’t asked. Harry darted his eyes around the room in an attempt to show his confusion.

“Oh for god sake, Harold, that was me asking you out.”

“Oh. OH.” Oh.

“Don’t look so surprised, mate.”

“No I just... why?” Harry had been genuinely startled by the question.

“Well for one, you are quite charmin’. Like a whole new level of charm really.” A blush crept onto Harry’s face. Louis continued, “Secondly, you are possibly one of the most beautiful people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

He was pretty sure the color of his face now closely resembled that of a Razzmatazz crayon. He wasn’t a stranger to compliments (people loved his long hair, his dimples, and especially his knock knock jokes) but the way Louis was so open about his interest had taken him aback. Literally nowhere on the radar of ever did he expect to be in the same room as Louis Tomlinson, much less being asked out by him.

It wasn’t until Louis cleared his throat and quirked an eyebrow that Harry realized he had not responded.

“Oh, sorry, umm, yeah. Sure” Cool, calm, collective.

“Well, don’t sound too thrilled about it.” Louis had his usual sarcastic tone but there was an undercut of something else there. Hurt? And no, that simply wouldn’t do.

“I mean, yes, I would love to. I’m sorry, its just kind of taking me a while to wrap my head around all of this.” He conducted a broad circular motion with his hands, gesturing in Louis’ general direction.

“I know. But it’s not like I’m Brad Pitt. I’m a flimsy BBC actor.”

“Not flimsy. But people love you. You have like your own cult”

Louis nodded his head, “Guilty. And I understand if you don’t want to, really, no hard feelin’s. But we seem to hit it off well, and ya know you seem really awesome. And like people already think we are secretly dating so like it wouldn’t even really be a big shock or anything. And like...” He shrugged. He was cute when he was flustered.

He was always the manifestation of suave on screen and here he was fidgeting and rocking back and forth on his heels. It was completely endearing.

Harry smiled. “No, I’d love to Lou. Really.” Louis visibly relaxed. “Let’s do dinner sometime, yeah?”

Louis smiled and nodded. They exchanged numbers and got through a somewhat awkward, hug/fist bump/hand shake dilemma before they parted ways. (In the end it was a one armed hug with a mumbled “text me whenever you want to grab a bite”.)

\------------------------------

It’s not that Harry expected Louis to blow him off and not text after their initial meeting, but he was still surprised when his phone dings two days later.

Louis 4.55:

hey, so I’m free Wednesday night if you still wanna meet up

Harry 4:57:

love to! Where’s convenient for you?

Louis 5:00:

umm, let’s do 8 at La Alexandria?

Harry 5:01:

perfect. :) see you then.

Louis 5:03:

yay! can’t wait xx

Harry pocketed his phone and if he didn’t stop smiling until pulling into the restaurant parking lot Wednesday night, then no one had to know.

\---------------------------------

Louis looked stunning in his sleek blue button down paired with his signature cuffed black skinnies and oxfords.

Harry still didn’t fully understand how this had become his life. A month before he had been nothing more than a student with too many papers to write and not nearly enough time. And well, that was still very much the case, but just with the added bonus of getting to see one Mr Louis Tomlinson sitting in the back of a dimly lit restaurant playing with his hair as he waited for his date to arrive. And he was that date.  

Life had a funny way of working out.

\----------------------------------

They left the restaurant and made their way to the small parking lot in the back. Their idle chatter had died down and been replaced with a content but somewhat nervous lull. What was going to happen next?

Harry had really enjoyed the date. Louis had been a complete gentleman and they had kept up a

very casual back and forth throughout dinner, no awkward silences.

The only time Harry had felt self conscious was when he thought maybe Louis had caught him staring at his lips as he spoke. It hadn’t been his fault though, Louis’ mouth was just so mesmerizing. So sue him for wanting nothing more than to jump over the table and capture his thin quirked lips between his own. And right. This is what made this current moment so tense. Would they end in a goodnight kiss? (Was Louis even still into him?) Would Louis be overly bold and ask Harry back to his house? (Harry would have politely declined, just because he liked having more than one date under the belt before getting under the belt.)

He was pulled out of all the spinning questions in his head when they arrived at his car. Louis cleared his throat and Harry turned to face him.

“I had a really great time tonight.”

“Same. We should-ugh- we should maybe do this again. If you want.”

Louis smiled so sincerely that the corners of his eyes crinkled. Harry was a goner. “I’d really like that.”

Harry brought up his hand to sweep through his curls as he spoke. “Yeah, just text me whenever. I mean, text whenever you want to hang out again. Or just for fun. Really. I don’t mind.”

For being an adult, he sure was acting like a giddy teenager on the precipice of his very first kiss.

Louis scooted a little closer into his space. Harry gulped. Louis reached out to where Harry still had his hand resting on top of his curls. He grabbed his hand and began to lower it. Harry took the hint and dropped his arm completely.

Another smile crept onto Louis’ face as he took a stray curl and tucked it behind Harry’s ear, leaving his fingers tucked in the springy bits. It should have been oddly intimate for a first encounter, but it wasn’t. It felt natural and right even when Louis finally stepped in and closed the gap between them.

Harry shut his eyes and soaked up the feeling of Louis’ lips soft over his. He wasn’t darting his tongue out or nibbling his lips, but instead just content in letting their mouths touch.

Louis pulled away and let out a small giggle. Harry opened his eyes to Louis biting his lip and smiling up at him still. For a 23 year old man covered in tattoos, Louis sure was an interesting mix of pixie and kitten. It was adorable.

“I really did have a great time Harry.”

“Same.” He couldn’t contain the smile that swept over his face.

“Well, I know you have to be up early for class” (so he had paid attention to Harry’s stories about law school and hectic schedules). “So, I’ll let you get home and get some sleep.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you soon though.”

“Yeah for sure. Goodnight.” With a last smile and curt nod, Louis turned in the direction of his car.

“Hey Lou..” Harry let out before he could keep himself back. Louis quickly turned around with a quizzical expression and the starts of a “what?” forming on his lips when instantly Harry was in his space, lips covering his and arms found their way to Louis waist.

Louis’ initial surprise wore off and he quickly settled into the kiss, bringing his arms up around Harry’s neck.

They kissed deeper than before, the nervousness of the first kiss gone. Harry opened his mouth slightly to gain better access and Louis took the opportunity to do the same. After a few more moments, Harry pulled away and rested his forehead down on the older boys.

“Nothing. Just wanted to do that, s’all.”

Finally, they parted ways after a few more brief pecks. The entire drive back to his flat and as he was settling down in bed he kept replaying every aspect of the date over again in his head. From every sassy comment made on Louis’ part, to the way he talked so openly and honestly about the struggles of growing up in a community that was less than accepting of his sexuality.

Harry was just about to doze off when he got a twitter notification He had turned off general ones, but ones from certain people (cough, cough Louis) still came through. His heartbeat picked up ever so slightly as he went to see what had been tweeted.

_**Louis Tomlinson: Great night with great company.** _

__

Attached was a photo that he must have snuck taking at some point during the dinner. It was a photo of Harry’s hands as he held the menu, trying to decide what to order. To anyone else, it wouldn’t necessarily be obvious as to who was pictured. The only identifying marks were his two rings and the slight view of his cross tattoo peeking out due to the angle of the photo.

Harry couldn’t help but laugh. Louis was such a troll. He knew very well that the next morning, the Larry tag on tumblr would blow up with speculations and hand analysis and this time they were right.

**  
**This time it was exactly what it looked like. This time their paths had crossed.

 


End file.
